[
3]
Among the places enumerated by Homer in the Catalogue of the Ships, Messa, they say, is no longer to be found;
and that Messoa is not a part of Laconia, but a part of Sparta
itself, as was the Limnæum near Thornax. Some understand
Messē to be a contraction of Messene, for it is said that this
was a part of Laconia. [They allege as examples from the
poet, the words ‘cri,’ and ‘do,’ and ‘maps,’
1 and this passage also;
“
The horses were yoked by Automedon and Alcimus,2
” Il. xix. 392.
instead of Alcimedon. And the words of Hesiod, who uses
βοͅῖ for
βοͅιθν̀ and
βριαοͅὸν; and Sophocles and Io, who have
ῥᾳ
for
ῥᾴδιιν; and Epicharmus,
λῖ for
λίαν, and
συρακὼ for
συοͅα-
κουσαι; Empedocles also has
ὂψ for
ὄψις ῾μία γίγνεται ἀμφτέρων
ὄψ or
ὄψις;) and Antimachus,
δήμητρός τοι ᾿ελυσινίης ἱερὴ ὄψ,
and
ἄλφι for
ἄλφιτον; Euphorion has
ἧλ for
ἧλος; Philetes
has
δμωίδες εἰς ταλάρκὸν ἄγουσιν ἔρι for
ἔοͅιον Aratus,
εἰς ἄνεμον δὲ τὰ πηδά for
τὰ πηδάλια; Simmias, Dodo for
Dodona.]
3
Of the rest of the places mentioned by the poet, some are
extinct; of others traces remain, and of others the names are
changed, as Augeiæ into Ægææ: [the city] of that name in
Locris exists no longer. With respect to Las, the Dioscuri
are said to have taken it by siege formerly, whence they had
the name of Lapersæ, (Destroyers of Las,) and Sophocles says
somewhere, ‘by the two Lapersæ, by Eurotas, by the gods
in Argos and Sparta.’